José Dias Ferreira

José Dias Ferreira

José Dias Ferreira (born November 30, 1837 in Pombeiro da Beira ( Arganil ), † September 8, 1909 in Vidago ( Chaves )) was a Portuguese jurist , politician and Prime Minister (Presidente do Conselho de Ministros) during the time of the constitutional monarchy.

Life

Studies and professional career at the University of Coimbra

The Law Faculty of the University of Coimbra

The son of a small farmer was originally supposed to pursue a career as a priest and first began preparatory studies in the Latin language . At the age of fourteen, he was enrolled in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Coimbra in 1852 .

However, due to the influence of the professor and MP Vicente Ferrer de Neto Paiva, who introduced Krausismo in Portugal , he finished his studies of theology without a degree and instead began studying law at the University of Coimbra on October 3, 1854 , which he received in 1859 with honors Best of year graduated. As a student, he wrote the essay Ensaio sobre os Primeiros Elementos da Teoria da Estatística do Exmo in 1857 . Senhor Adrião Pereira Forjaz de Sampaio (Essay on the First Elements of the Theory of Statistics by Exmo - Adrião Pereira Forjaz de Sampaio) and the following year Anotações aos Elementos de Direito Natural do Exmo. Senhor Vicente Ferrer Neto de Paiva (Notes on the Elements of Natural Law by Exmo - Vicente Ferrer Neto de Paiva), with which he paid tribute to his professor.

Because of his outstanding achievements, he was awarded the academic degree of Doctor iuris on June 29, 1860 . He then began an academic career, which was soon followed by a political career and later a career as a lawyer. First he became an assistant professor on May 10, 1861, and then in 1862 a private lecturer in natural law and legal philosophy , before he was appointed professor at the chair of civil law in 1866 .

Political career

Member of Parliament

In the year of his doctorate , his political career began in 1860 with the first election as a member of the twelfth Legislative Assembly of the Constitutional Monarchy ( Legislatura da Monarquia Constitucional portuguesa ), in which he initially represented the constituency of Arganil and to which he belonged to a total of twenty-five legislative periods.

After representing the constituency of Anadia in parliament during the electoral terms of 1864 and 1865 , he moved to Lisbon in 1866 with his wife, the daughter of a respected factory owner , where he established himself as a lawyer and legal advisor. There he quickly became one of the most respected lawyers in town and at the same time one of the most active members of parliament. At the same time, he was the editor of the legal journal Jornal da Jurisprudência between 1865 and 1870 and co-editor of several other legal publications, in particular the Revista Crítica de Jurisprudência Geral e Legislação (Critical Magazine for General Law and Legislation). As a member of parliament, he played a key role in the creation and revision of several important laws, such as in 1867 as a member of the Revision Commission for the Commercial Law ( Código Comercial ), in 1870 in the establishment of the Supreme Administrative Court ( Supremo Tribunal Administrativo ) and between 1870 and 1876 in the preparation and publication of the Civil Code ( Código Civil ).

minister

Due to his significant involvement in the settlement of the crisis over the state budget of 1867, after the overthrow of the government of Joaquim António de Aguiar after the riot on the New Year of 1868 because of intended tax increases on January 4, 1868, he became Minister of the Treasury ( Ministro dos Negócios da Fazenda ) in appointed the cabinet of António José de Ávila . In this government, which was in office until July 22, 1868, despite his age, he was one of the leading figures alongside the Prime Minister and the President of Parliament António Luís de Seabra . However, the withdrawal of the tax increases planned by the previous government led to financial difficulties for the de Ávilas government, which ultimately led to its resignation.

After this brief period in government, he was one of the leading representatives of the opposition in the years that followed. After the general parliamentary elections of March 22, 1868, he first represented one of the constituencies of Lisbon and then, after the elections of March 1870, the constituency of Beja and then the constituency of Aveiro in the Chamber of Deputies. In this constituency he was then re-elected in the elections of 1871, 1874, 1878, 1879, 1881 and 1884.

After the coup d'état of May 19, 1870, the so-called Saldanhada , and the subsequent fourth and final takeover of government by Marshal João Carlos de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun , Dias Ferreira was again appointed Minister of the Treasury. On June 3, 1870, however, he took over the offices of Minister of Justice and Minister of Royal Affairs until the end of Saldanha's term on August 30, 1870.

Party founder

After the government of Saldanha cleavage of the political party system reached its peak during the time of the Constitutional Monarchy in the parliamentary elections of September 1870 and July 1871, when in addition to the Reformist Party ( Partido reform Ista ) of Bernardo de Sá Nogueira de Figueiredo , the followers of the non-party de Ávila , the Regeneration Party ( Partido da Regeneração ) of António Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo , the Historical Party ( Partido Histórico ) under the Duke of Loulé and the supporters of Dias Ferreira were represented in the Chamber of Deputies.

Against this background, he was the founder of the constitutional party ( Partido Constituinte ) on February 25, 1871 , which offered a political home in particular to a number of intellectuals such as the writer and journalist Manuel Joaquim Pinheiro Chagas . The constitutional party did not acquire any major importance in the next few years, but essentially formed an alliance with the regeneration party.

It was not until the general parliamentary elections on August 21, 1881 for the 24th Chamber of Deputies that the constitutional party gained national importance when it won more MPs than the previously ruling Progressive Party ( Partido Progressista ) led by Anselmo José Braamcamp . Nevertheless, they could not use this election success to form a government, but lost the mandate to form a government to the regeneration party around António Rodrigues Sampaio and de Melo .

In 1881 he was one of the participants in a meeting to found a Catholic party ( Partido Católico ) in Porto, along with Pinheiro Chagas and Francisco de Azeredo Teixeira de Aguilar , which ultimately failed. In the period that followed, the constitutional party lost more and more importance.

At the same time, however, he was instrumental in the revision of the commercial law ( Código Comercial ). During this time he was a member of several parliamentary committees and as such brought more than five hundred bills on various legal and constitutional topics as well as proposals for electoral reform.

As it was around 1870 when many politicians of his time Loge Cavaleiros de Nemesis de Lisboa as a Freemason initiated. In 1882 he was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge Mações Antigos, Livres e Aceites de Portugal , which he chaired until 1885.

After the constitutional party dissolved in 1885, Dias Ferreira remained as a non-party member of the constituency of Aveiro in parliament and was re-elected member of parliament in 1887, 1889 and 1890. In the years to come, despite his non-party status, he was a recognized figure on all legal and financial issues .

Prime Minister from 1892 to 1893

In 1892 he was re-elected as a non-party representative of the Aveiro constituency as a member of parliament. Shortly afterwards there was a political crisis because of the financial and economic problems. These problems could not be solved by the alternating ( Rotativismo ) governing parties (Progressive Party and Regeneration Party) because they pursued a more or less identical government policy.

In the wake of this crisis, King Charles appointed Dias Ferreira as Prime Minister (Presidente do Conselho de Ministros) on January 18, 1892, after the resignation of the also independent Prime Minister João Crisóstomo de Abreu e Sousa because of the state bankruptcy .

His government, known as O Governo da acalmação partidária because of its non-party status , initially embodied an exception to the predominantly unstable governments of the time. In particular, the treasury minister he appointed, Joaquim Pedro de Oliveira Martins, initially earned great respect for efforts to reduce foreign debt . However, on May 27, 1892, he himself took over the office of Treasury Minister. As such, he pursued an austerity policy to reduce the budget deficit, which was imperative , especially due to the deterioration in tax revenues . This policy was massively criticized by the Progressive Party and the Regeneration Party, which were striving for a renewed government.

During his reign he also took over the office of Minister for Royal Affairs from January 18 to November 9, 1892. At the same time he was acting Minister for Public Education and Fine Arts from January 18 to March 3, 1892 . The Ministry of Education subsequently became part of the Ministry of Royal Affairs again.

At the end of 1892, however, there was a government crisis in the course of which several ministers resigned. In the general parliamentary elections of October 23, 1892, his renewed election as a member of parliament seemed jeopardized because his previous constituency of Aveira was dissolved. To overcome the embarrassment that the incumbent Prime Minister did not have a seat in parliament, he was guaranteed election in the constituencies of Aldeia Galega , Penacova and São Tomé and Príncipe by the parties represented in parliament . When he wanted to avoid this dependence on the parties and instead ran for a constituency in the region south of the Tagus , the government was defeated in the parliamentary elections.

During his tenure as Prime Minister, there was the last important state visit by a Portuguese delegation in November 1892 on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus .

After the election defeat he was Prime Minister of a minority government for a few months before he finally resigned on February 22, 1893.

Last years of life as a simple MP

After his resignation as Prime Minister, he remained a member of the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the Aldeia Galego constituency. In 1895 he was elected as a representative of the constituency of Évora and then in 1897 of the constituency of Almada , before he was again elected to represent Aldeia Galego as a member of parliament in the parliamentary elections of 1899 and 1900. Most recently he was re-elected member of parliament in the elections of 1901, 1904 and 1905, this time representing the constituency of Setúbal . Even in his final years as a member of parliament, he remained an active member of the Chamber of Deputies, particularly in matters of legislation, public finances, the budget and the tobacco monopoly. As a member of parliament, he was also part of the executive committee of the Portuguese group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) .

Despite his previous loyalty to the monarchy , he took part in a secret meeting to plan a republican overthrow in 1896 out of disappointment at the lack of support from the king , which envisaged him or, alternatively, José Luciano de Castro if he succeeded as President of the Republic. The overthrow planned for June 18, 1896 was mainly driven by Augusto Maria Fuschini and Soares Guedes . As a result of his possible participation in the coup, which did not take place, he was initially refused membership in the upper house of parliament ( Câmara dos Pares do Reino ). Only through a decree of April 1905 did he finally become a member of the House of Lords until his death.

Awards

As early as 1870 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of King Charles III. awarded by Spain .

He was also a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon ( Academia das Ciências de Lisboa ) and the Geographical Society of Lisbon ( Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa ) as well as a corresponding member of the Institute of Coimbra ( Instituto de Coimbra ).

His great-granddaughter Manuela Ferreira Leite is also a politician and former Portuguese Minister of Education.

Works

• Ensaio sobre os Primeiros Elementos da Teoria da Estatística do Exmo. Senhor Adrião Pereira Forjaz de Sampaio . Coimbra 1857 (Essay on the First Elements of the Theory of Statistics by Exmo - Adrião Pereira Forjaz de Sampaio)
• Anotações aos Elementos de Direito Natural do Exmo. Senhor Vicente Ferrer Neto de Paiva . Coimbra 1858 (Notes on the Elements of Natural Law by Exmo - Vicente Ferrer Neto de Paiva; PDF file; 13.24 MB)
• Acto de Conclusão de Magnas na Faculdade de Direito . Coimbra 1860 ( inaugural dissertation )
• Noções fundamentais de filosofia do Direito . Coimbra 1864 (Fundamental Notes on Legal Philosophy; PDF file; 10.22 MB)
• O Código Civil Português (anotado) . Lisbon 1870 (The Civil Law of Portugal)
• Discursos mais notáveis ​​nas duas câmaras na sessão legislativa de 1881 . Lisbon (Speeches to the two Houses during the 1881 session)
• Discurso sobre a reforma da Constituição, proferido em sessão de 29 de Janeiro de 1884 . Lisbon 1884 (speech on constitutional reform at the parliamentary session on January 29, 1884)
• Discursos sobre a reforma da lei eleitoral, proferidos nas sessões de 8 e 10 de Março de 1884 . Lisbon 1884 (Speeches on the reform of the electoral law at the parliamentary sessions of March 8 and 10, 1884)
• Código do Processo Civil (anotado) . Lisbon 1890 (The Civil Procedure Act)
• A Novíssima Reforma Judiciária . Lisbon 1892 (The latest legislative reforms)
• Discurso sobre as reformas constitucionais proferido na sessão de 20 de Junho de 1900 . Lisbon 1900 (speech on constitutional reforms at the parliamentary session on June 20, 1900)

Web links

• José Dias Ferreira . ( Memento of October 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Biography on the website of the Secretaria-Geral do Ministério das Finanças, June 9, 2006 (Portuguese; pdf; 266 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Ministério da Administraçăo Interna: Ministros / Cronologia . ( Memento of December 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Portuguese Ministry of the Interior, version of December 20, 2009 (list of ministers for internal administration).
2. ^ Governo de José Dias Ferreira . ( Memento of September 29, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas of the University of Lisbon , version of September 29, 2003.
3. ^ Ralph Uhlig: The Inter-Parliamentary Union 1889-1914 . Wiesbaden 1988, p. 273.

predecessor	Office	successor
João Crisóstomo de Abreu e Sousa	Prime Minister (Presidente do Conselho de Ministros) January 18, 1892 - February 22, 1893	Ernesto Rodolfo Hintze Ribeiro